


Plan B

by ohemdee



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Background Character Death, Blackwatch Week, Drug Use, First Meetings, Gen, Jesse is high when they meet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 14:36:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohemdee/pseuds/ohemdee
Summary: An attempted clean-up of Deadlock Gorge gone terribly wrong leads to the fortuitous meeting of Gabriel Reyes and everyone’s favourite cowboy.





	Plan B

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve never written a fic without a clear ship in my head before, and I wanted to give that a shot. Hope you enjoy!

The op had been planned in its entirety for weeks, which meant that everything went right to hell as soon as they were boots on the ground.

Here is how it was supposed to go down:

Pick off guards individually using small, targeted team.  
Enter through side passages, setting charges as team moves, leaving only the main entrance available.  
Remove small team, set off charges.  
Use panic to target leaders. Take down leaders.  
Tag and cuff remaining Deadlock members. Emerge heroes.

  
Here is what actually happened.

One guard was all it took in the end. Just one to slide a knife up and under Johnson’s vest, to poke his lung and incapacitate him. Gabe saw him fall through the feed from his vest camera, and shoved the computer aside and onto the ground, startling Fio beside him. He grabbed her vest. “That plane better be ready to take off the second I give you the signal.”

Lightly, she batted his hand away. “Yes sir, as always, I’ll be ready the second you tell me to be, and not one sooner.”

He considered reprimanding her for disrespecting her commanding officer, but with Fio that would probably be a waste of time. She shrugged off everything like water on oil, whether it was him chewing her out or a harried flight out of Deadlock Gorge.

“Commander, we, uh, we have a situation here. Requesting backup.” Gabe wasn’t even sure who that was over the comms, fuzzy as it was with how deep his troops were inside the caves carved out into the walls of the gorge.

He let go of Fio, flipped her off when she gave him a cheery wave on her way to ready their ship, and grabbed his own mic. “Reyes, here. Took you long enough to call.”

“Yeah boss, we lost cameras and comms for about thirty seconds there.”

“I didn’t.” Gabe ran a hand down his face.

“Fuck.” Yeah, that about summed up Gabe’s thoughts. Someone knew they were there, and wanted him to know that they knew. “Boss, requesting extraction along with that backup.”

“Yeah, get the hell out. Give me five.” He gathered up his gear, took a sledgehammer to what they were leaving behind, and sprayed Moira’s latest invention over the whole thing- something she said would remove all the DNA evidence without looking like it had been intentionally removed.

It was one thing to study all the maps, watch every movement of people through a camera, and another thing to enter the literal maze of tunnels that Deadlock had barricaded themselves into. A couple of unlucky thugs, kids really, fell to his garotte, another to a quicker death by bullet. Gabe moved silently through the halls. the quiet murmur of his comrades coming steadily through the comms while they co-ordinated their extraction. His stealth was wasted though, and Gabe could feel the hair starting to stand up on the back of his neck. It was way too quiet for the amount of activity he’d seen earlier. He rounded a corner, and got his gun up to another kid, even younger than the others. Handcuffed to a metal pipe. With a gun sitting next to him.

The kid whistled a long, low note. “Howdy bossman. How ya aim them things? Jus’ swing ‘em around, hope for the best?”

Gabe frowned. The kid was high as a fucking kite, pupils two wildly different sizes, and laughing at his own comments.

“Ya hear th’ plan? Got ya boys out?” The kid brought his focus back around to Gabe. “Gonna blow the whole place up! Tha’s my job, one las’ shot. If I make it I live!” Gabe could see the tremble around the kid’s lips, trying to hold it together and failing miserably.

This was not what he needed today. His comm crackled. “Commander, we’re at extraction, and no one’s around. Where are you?”

“In a minute.” He probably didn’t need to be that short, but they would get over it.

Gabe crouched down in front of the kid. “What are you talking about, kid? This place rigged?”

“Yeah, see the wires. Shoulda noticed them, ain’t you the expert or somethin’.” He gestured vaguely around the walls, and Gabe had to stand up to see what he was pointing out. Thin, nearly imperceptible wires running along the edges of the walls, interrupted by small bulges every six feet or so.

“Charges in th’ walls, blow it all. Boom.” The kid laughed. “I can slow it though, left me two shots to do it. One to miss, one to take myself out when I do.”

“Why’d they do that to you?” Seemed harsh, even for a gang. Usually they just took off a finger or three.

The kid grinned up at him. “Made sure you saw the camera feed.”

“What’s your shot?” The kid picked up the gun, and aimed it just over Gabe’s head, making him turn and look up. A tiny switch, just above the door.

“Blue for addin’ ten minutes, and lettin’ me get the cuffs off, white for takin’ ten minutes off the timer. Slip the cuffs, insta boom.” It was an impossible shot, one that even Ana would balk at, probably less than two inches between the buttons. And she wouldn’t do it with some ancient six-shooter

“So why the drugs? And what’s your name kid?”

Kid had the audacity to laugh. “Had t’ make it interestin’ somehow. And th’ fuck is it to ya, bossman.”

Gabe looked back at him, and the kid’s bravado shrank to a more reasonable size under his stare. “Gotta radio it out so we can put it on your grave, kid. Congrats, you’re an Overwatch hero. Or at least one to Blackwatch.”

“I can make the shot.” That wasn’t bravado. “You can put Jesse McCree on my statue when I do.”

“The fuck you can.”

“Wanna see?” Gabe ducked as the gun rang out, and the kid started laughing again.

“What the fuck kid, now how the fuck am I getting you out of here!” Gabe yelled over the giggles.

“Shoulda seen your fuckin’ face bossman! You though’ I was goin’ for your head!”

Gabe was going to throttle the kid before the bombs ever had time to do their work. “No, I thought even your idiot ass would know better than to try and make that shot. We have fucking bomb squads for a fucking reason, kid.”

“Don’ need no fuckin’ bomb squad.” Gabe looked up at the door.

He’d made the shot.

“Told those dicks drugs won’ keep down th’ best shot in Deadlock. Hey, bossman, ya think ya can take these cuffs off now? I’m gettin’ real tired, and my arm hurts.”

Ana was going to all over him about his bleeding heart when they got back to base. “Sure, kid.”

“I’s Jesse, I tol’ ya.” The kid kept yammering on the whole time Gabe worked the cuffs off, starting to talk in more and more circles the longer Gabe let him run his mouth.

“Hey bossman, wha’s your name?”

“Reyes.”

Jesse laughed. “Tha’s the best name for a bossman, but tha’ ain’t no first name.”

“Gabriel.” Jesse tried to repeat it back, and lost control of his tongue trying to roll the “r”.

“Hey Gabr-, Gaaaaabr-, Gabriel, I don’ think my legs work.”

Fuck, now he was going to catch flack from Fio too. This was going to be a nightmare for weeks. But, they had gotten this far, so he bent down and scooped the kid over his shoulder and into a fireman’s carry, the ease of it making him frown. Kid hardly weighed anything.

Ten minutes, and some surprisingly helpful directions from Jesse later, Gabe let out a relieved breath as the drop ship come into sight, and immediately saw Fio put her head down on her dashboard, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Pick up a stray?” Gerard laughed and clapped Gabe on the back as he walked by.

“Shut up, he’s going into custody as soon as we touch down.”

Jesse, of course, couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “Custody! Bossman, you say custody? I don’ wanna go there.”

Gabe sent up a silent prayer to anyone that might be listening that the kid would pass out soon. “You’re in a gang, Jesse.”

“I know, but I saved your life!” He did raise a fair point.

“We’ll mention that to the higher ups.” Finally, silence, and Gabe looked at the kid, now blissfully unconscious.

Gabe dropped him on a seat inside the ship. “Get a detox kit and a a biotic field on him. I’ll be at the front.”

Gabe slid on the headset Fio passed him when he sat down. He leaned back in his co-pilot’s chair, eyes closed.

“So boss, another stray?”

“Yeah, I thought we could use one more.” He opened one eye and took in her half smile.

“Strike Commander won’t be pleased about that.”

“Jackie won’t do anything, you should know that by now. We’ll see about the kid though. Don’t know how much I can do. People been calling for Deadlock’s heads for a while.”

“Why keep him?” Fio looked over, hands releasing from the controls as Athena took over.

“Good fucking shot.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone here just reading this, if you want to come say hi to me on tumblr, do so! Here is my [main blog](http://oh-emdee.tumblr.com/).
> 
> A big shoutout to the organizers of Blackwatch Week! Thanks for doing this, I’m stoked to be participating!


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